Gears — mesh and spin

Gears is a gear simulator, a clockwork you build without effort. On a dark engraved plate, under a warm light, tap anywhere and a gear pops into place: it finds its nearest neighbour, picks the right size, slides to exactly the right distance and lets its teeth fall into the gaps of the other wheel, perfectly in phase. Brass, steel, copper and gold, with spokes, jewels, screws and clock hands, and a light that stays still while the metal turns, the way it does on a real watch movement.

How to play

Tap the plate to add a gear; if nothing is near, it stands alone on its own pin. Drag in empty space to draw a whole chain of gears along your finger, each one meshed with the last. Grab any gear and turn it: the whole train turns with it, every wheel at its own ratio, in alternating directions. Let go with a flick and it keeps spinning like a flywheel, then slows down gently. Tap a gear to give it a kick. Motor keeps the main wheels turning, the themes recolor the mechanism, Clear lets every gear fall off its pin and bounce away, PNG saves the picture.

Why it's satisfying

Nothing to aim at: every gear finds its own place, every tooth meets its gap. The click of the snap, the tick that speeds up with the train, sparks at the contact points when you spin it hard, and thirty wheels turning together as one machine. Nothing to win, nothing to lose, just more clockwork.

About

Gears is part of Alcy, forty free contemplative micro-games in your browser. For more things that turn and swing: Spirograph, Pendulum, Orbit.